View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Publications of the IAS Fellows J. MED. MICROBI0L.-VOL. 14 (1981), 279-293 0022-26 15/8 1/M07 0279 $02.00 0 1981 The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland INCORPORATION OF 3H-THYMIDINE IN MYCOBACTERIUM LEPRAE WITHIN DIFFERENTIATED HUMAN MACROPHAGES H. K. PRASADAND INDIRANATH Department of Pathology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi-110029, India PLATEXV SUMMARY.The factors influencing the incorporation of 3H-thymidine (3H-Tdr) in the DNA of Mycobacterium leprae within macrophages derived from human blood have been evaluated. Fifty strains of M. leprae derived from skin nodules of patients with lepromatous leprosy were studied for their ability to incorporate 3H-Tdr. Control macro- phages of the same donor maintained alone, or with autoclaved M. leprae, showed low levels of baseline 3H-Tdr incorporation. During a 15-day period of pulsing, 27 of the M. leprae strains incorporated 3H-Tdr at levels of 2 162834% of the incorporation by control cultures. Significant incorporation was observable by the second week of culture and cumulative increases occurred by the third week. A 24-h pulse with 3H-Tdr was inadequate for a detectable increase. A minimal duration of 4-5 days of continuous pulsing was required to obtain a significant increase in the incorporation of 3H-Tdr. Of the 50 M. leprae strains, 23 (46%) failed to incorporate the radiolabel. This failure was apparently not related to differences in the disease status of patients, to the transport conditions for the biopsies, to morphological indices of the extracted M. leprae or to the origin of the host macrophages. INTRODUCTION One of the major restrictions in the understanding and treatment of leprosy has been the inability to cultivate Mycobacterium leprae in vitro. At first, assessment of the viability of this organism in the dermal lesions of patients was limited to morphological criteria (Rees and Valentine, 1962; Waters and Rees, 1962; Edwards, Draper and Draper, 1972). With the advent of the mouse-footpad model (Shepard, 1960; Rees 1964,1966), it was possible for the first time to study the kinetics of growth and the effects of drugs on M. leprae in vivo. The mouse experimental model has been invaluable in the evaluation of drug sensitivity (Shepard, 1967; Rees, Pearson and Waters, 1970; Levy and Peters, 1977), but its usefulness is limited by the period of 6-9 months that is Received 30 Jul. 1980; revised version accepted 19 Jan. 1981, 279 280 H. K. PRASAD AND INDIRA NATH required for the logarithmic growth phase of the bacteria. Animal-house facilities for normal or immunodeficient mice infected with M. Zeprae are not available in many areas of endemic leprosy. Extensive investigations of drug-resistant strains in the field and the assessment of potential anti-leprosy drugs require a rapid and quantitative method for the assessment of the viability and growth of M. Zeprae. The use of tissue cultures of Schwann cells and other host cells to support the growth of M.Zeprae (Palmer, Rees and Weddell, 1961; Fildes, 1974; Pattyn, 1974; Lalitha, Bapat and Dastur, 1977) had only limited success because the multiplication of M.leprae within the cells could not be assessed with accuracy. The use of radioisotope labelling was introduced by Drutz and Cline (1972) who reported the incorporation of 3H-thymidine (3H-Tdr) in M. leprae found in the infected macrophages of patients with lepromatous leprosy. Subsequently, Talwar, Krishnan and Gupta (1 974) confirmed the successful incorporation of radioactive thymidine in macrophage cultures containing fresh M. Zeprae derived from skin nodules of bacilliferous leprosy patients. They also showed by electron autoradiography that the radioisotope was limited to M. Zeprae and was not present in the host cells. Moreover, further investigations with 3H-DOPA and 3H-Tdr showed uptake of radioactivity by M. leprae maintained in a cell-free synthetic medium (Ambrose, Antia and Khanolkar, 1974; Ambrose, Khanolkar and Chulawalla, 1978). The present investigation was undertaken to evaluate the factors influenc- ing uptake of 3H-Tdr in M. Zeprae maintained in macrophages obtained from normal human peripheral blood. Fifty strains of M. Zeprae obtained from the skin nodules of patients with lepromatous leprosy were studied during a period of 2 years. MATERIALSAND METHODS Macrophage preparation. Peripheral blood was collected aseptically from healthy donors, was heparinised (preservative-free heparin, Upjohn, Kalamazoo, USA; 10 units/ml of blood) and was allowed to sediment under the effect of gravity at 37°C for 30-40 min. The leucocyte-rich plasma was mixed with equal volumes of tissue-culture medium and dispensed into Leighton tubes in 1-5-ml portions. The medium used was RPMI 1640 (Gibco, Detroit, USA) with Hepes buffer (Gibco) at an initial pH of 7.2-7-4. The cell suspension was incubated for 18-24 h at 37°C to permit the adherence of cells to the glass. The tubes were then agitated gently, and the medium containing the non-adherent cells was removed. The cultures were washed once with warm RPMI 1640, kept at 37”C, and the tubes were refilled with maintenance medium (RPMI 1640 with 50% pooled AB serum). Antibiotics were not used in the media. After 5-6 days at 37”C, most neutrophils were detached and well differentiated macrophages could be seen (fig. 1). Coverslips were included in a few Leighton tubes only for the study of the morphological, histochemical and phagocytic properties of the cultivated macrophages; cultures used for radioisotope uptake did not contain coverslips. All cultures were examined daily by phase contrast in an inverted microscope. Coverslip preparations were fixed and stained as described below for the various observations. Macrophuge morphology. Coverslips were fixed in methanol for 10 min and stained by Giemsa (Dacie and Lewis, 1966). For assessment of baseline phagocytosis, coverslips containing macrophages that had been fed “viable” or autoclaved M.leprae were fixed with 10% ”H-THYMIDINE INCORPORATION IN M. LEPRAE 28 1 buffered formalin and stained by the Fites modification of the Ziehl-Neelsen technique with cold carbol-fuchsin (Parameswaran, 1973). Macrophage histochemistry. Nonspecific esterase was used as a marker for macrophages by the methods of Yam, Li and Cosby (1971). In brief, the coverslips were fixed with 2% glutaraldehyde (TAAB Labs, UK) in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) for 20 min, and a-naphthyl butyrate (Sigma Chemical Co., Poole, Dorset) was used as a substrate. Macrophage viability was assessed initially by a dye-exclusion test with 0.2% (w/v) trypan blue in PBS. Because loss of viability was shown to be associated with detachment from the glass, daily assessment of viability was made on the basis of the glass adherence seen on microscopic examination of the Leighton tubes. Preparation of bacteria. Skin biopsies from untreated lepromatous leprosy patients were sent in ice by air freight, and received within 6-18 h. Dr L. M. Hogerzeil, Victoria Hospital, Dichpalli, Dr C. G. S. Iyer, Central Leprosy Research and Training Institute, Chingleput and Professor Rattan Singh, Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan Hospital, Delhi, kindly donated the biopsies. M. leprae was isolated from the skin biopsies essentially by the method of Rees (1964). In brief, the epidermis was removed from the skin and the dermis was cut into fine pieces and homogenised in glass homogenisers in isotonic saline with 1% (v/v) bovine serum albumin. The bacilli were counted essentially by the method of Hanks and Lechat (1964) and resuspended in RPMI 1640 with 50% AB serum at a concentration of 5 x lo7bacilli/ml, except where otherwise stated. Extreme care was taken to maintain sterility during the removal of skin biopsies, and the subsequent extraction of the bacilli. The skin was cleaned repeatedly with alcohol and iodine and the tissue was removed under surgical operating-theatre conditions. Extraction of bacilli was done either in a tissue-culture room or on a vertical laminar-flow sterile bench. All bacterial suspensions were screened at 37°C for common contaminants on nutrient agar, and for saprophytic cultivable mycobacteria on Lowenstein-Jensen medium (Cruickshank, 1968), with an incubation time of 3 weeks. The morphological index (MI) of the extracted bacilli was assessed by the criteria of McRae and Shepard (1971). The preparations of M. leprae were inoculated into macrophage cultures within 24-36 h of removal from the patient. For the negative control experiments, baccilli of the same strain were first autoclaved at 15 lb/in2 (1 kg/cm2) pressure for 15 min. Maintenance of macrophages and inoculation with bacteria From 6 to 7 days after establishment of the monolayers, 100 pl of medium containing 5 x lo6bacilli were added to each Leighton tube. The tubes were incubated for 12-1 8 h at 37°C. Subsequently, the monolayers were vigorously rinsed with warmed RPMI 1640. Fresh maintenance medium containing in addition 2 pCi of 3H-Tdr (specific activity 42 Ci/mmol; Radiochemical Centre, Amersham, Bucks) was added to each culture. The monolayers were maintained at 37°C for 24 days from the start of the experiment except where otherwise stated. The maintenance medium was replaced at weekly intervals or earlier if the pH fell below 6.5. Control cultures consisted of either non-infected macrophages from the same donor, or macrophages infected with autoclaved M. leprae of the corresponding strain. Replicates of five monolayers were used in each experiment. Coverslip preparations of infected macrophages were stained with Ziehl-Neelsen stain to assess the morphological state of M. leprae in each culture. Macrophage cultures were examined by inverted microscopy at regular intervals. Estimation of the uptake of 3H-Tdr. Cultures were harvested on the 24th day after inoculation, i.e., 15-16 days after the phagocytosis of M.